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Characterizing Transshipment at-sea Activities by Longline and Purse Seine Fisheries in Response to Recent Policy Changes in Indonesia

To combat IUU fishing facilitated by at-sea transshipment, the Indonesian government banned the activity in 2014. Enforcing the ban, however, has been difficult due to the challenges of detecting and monitoring transshipment activities at sea. This study provides a suite of indicators for longline and purse seine fisheries in Indonesian waters as a useful tool to underpin monitoring, control, and surveillance activities to reduce IUU fishing. Through this analysis, the extent of increased enforcement and legislation managing transshipment puts Indonesia at the forefront of nations addressing IUU fishing.

The Tuna Commodity Frontier - Business Strategies and Environment in the Industrial Tuna Fisheries of the Western Indian Ocean

Liam Campling identifies a new tuna 'commodity frontier' that has a historical-geographical development with European fishing fleets (entirely in France and Spain) in the Eastern Tropical Atlantic and the Western Indian Ocean. In explaining how this commodity frontier came to be, Campling articulates two relations that function simultaneously at the point of production in industrial capture fisheries: vertical relations and horizontal relations. Capital has to adapt to a decline in relative ecological development, constantly holding in tension between the synthetic and the organic, coupled with increased competition between fishing firms. Together, these forces have created a commodity frontier with a clear history and provide a blueprint to analyze further capture fisheries.

When Fishing Turns Deadly - The Environmental and Social Impacts of Illegal Trawling in North Sumatra - EJF

Trawling is recognized as ecologically destructive and unsustainable and contributes to widespread IUU fishing in Indonesia. The number of trawlers is highest in North Sumatra, even though trawlers were banned in Indonesian waters in 1980. Indonesian authorities, because of bribery and corruption, have been unwilling to enforce the ban, leading to a rise in trawler activity. Trawlers often illegally enter a 3-mile zone reserved for traditional fishing activities. This invasion has led to ecological harm to the area, a decrease in stock leading to increasingly less income and a collapse of local fisheries, and most alarmingly, high levels of violence and conflict, sometimes leading to death. JALA is working with local fisheries to represent their needs to the Indonesian government and provide a solution for this urgent situation.

Squid Capture in the Northwest Indian Ocean - Unregulated Fishing on the High Seas

FISH-i Africa has identified an increasing number of squid vessels operating in the Northwest Indian Ocean (NWIO). The problem is that these squid fisheries are unregulated because the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (the region's RFMO) only has a mandate over tuna and tuna-like species. These fisheries are deliberately fishing on the high seas outside countries' EEZ zones to bypass national jurisdiction. The report gives a detailed account of the activity and characteristics of this emerging squid fishery and provides sound reasoning for immediate management frameworks to protect the region and the species.